Labour MP Diane Abbott. Photo Credit: London Borough of Hackney.
The new year kicked off with an almighty tempest in a tea cup following black Labour MP Diane Abbott’s tweeted that claim “white people” love to play “divide and rule.” Notwithstanding the mass harrumphing that ensued, my own view is that the remark was supremely harmless; in any case, I wasn’t offended and I’m white.
“White people love playing ‘divide & rule’. We should not play their game. #tacticasoldascolonialism,” Diane Abbott tweeted.
The furore, however, raises a broader question about racism in general, namely whether it mightn’t finally be time to stop being so sensitive. Clearly, great injustices have been perpetrated against various minority groups in the not to distant past but in today’s Britain – and America for that matter – there is nothing that any minority group is precluded from doing by virtue of their race, faith, or sexual orientation. Moreover, as demonstrated by Abbottgate, even the slightest hint of racially couched statements prompt instant, widespread, and (arguably) exaggerated censure. No doubt the same would be true had the comments been of a religious or sexual basis.
“But wait,” I imagine the indignant reader exclaiming, “what about white football players calling black football players ‘nigger’, and what about the recently and belatedly convicted white killers of the black 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence?” Obviously such acts are totally unacceptable in any civilized society, but race-motivated murder is no more worthy of opprobrium than other equally unjustified murders and in the case of footballers, if an adult feels hurt by being called names, I’d recommend growing a thicker skin. As anyone who’s been to an English boarding school will confirm, there are a lot worse ways of teasing people.
My point is not that racism is okay or that it doesn’t exist, my point is that sufficient time has passed since the days of blatant government and societally sanctioned racism, that it should now be relegated to equal status with other insults and crimes. In America, reparations have been made for historical racism, and both there and in Britain people of all colours and creeds are welcomed equally throughout workplaces, entertainment spaces, and streets. By highlighting the issue of race whenever the slightest hint of it comes up and by falling over ourselves to seem perfectly egalitarian in every utterance while simultaneously screaming bloody murder when some public figure describes a group of people with reference to their background, often all we’re doing is magnifying something that would be otherwise innocuous.
So what’s the takeaway? Well, there are a few. First, it may be time for us to acknowledge that in Britain and America the racial, religious, and sexual orientation based injustices of the past have today been reset onto an even playing field. Second, mean-spirited and even violent people will always exist in any society; we need not work ourselves up into a righteous froth of panic by labeling those people’s misdeeds according to race, faith, or sexual orientation. Bad acts are bad acts, so why exacerbate matters and draw even more attention to the perpetrators’ message? Finally, on the milder end of the bad acts scale, if someone calls you an unkind or politically incorrect name, just remember the old sticks and stones saying and, to use an American expression, “get over it”.
So Diane Abbott, if you’re reading this, please don’t feel the need to apologize to me for your divide and conquer comments, I can assure you that I for one am not in the least bit offended.